Hackjob

Ever look at your keyboard and wished that it looked it would eat your face off? No? Well, apparently GravaStar thinks you should - and they designed probably the most aesthetically insane keyboard I've ever laid hands on: the Mercury K1 Pro. But is this keyboard just all bark and no bite?

The HHKB is easily one of the most divisive keyboards on the planet. It's held up as anything from the greatest typing implement ever built, to overhyped hipster garbage and everything in between. Apparently PFU saw that division, and decided it wasn't divided enough.

I've had a hankering for another Alps equipped keyboard ever since I parted ways with my oddball Datacomp DFK515 and thankfully, that opportunity finally presented itself in the form of what many consider to be the magnum opus. This is the Northgate OmniKey Ultra-T - and it eats IBM Model Ms for breakfast. Despite making a keyboard that holds a lot of reverence among computer users of a certain age - Northgate Computer Systems probably isn't a household name for most of you readers. In short, they were a manufacturer and seller of mail-order computers and peripherals during the 80s and 90s - among which was the OmniKey line of keyboards. The OmniKey ended up being so well liked that many customers just bought them for use with their existing systems. An early "Gold Badge" OmniKey 102. There were six models of the OmniKey. Northgate did sell some rebadged keyboards under the same branding, but we'll just focus on the more well-known originals: OmniKey 101: ANSI lay...

I'm in the process of moving and anticipating being without my main setup for the next two months. Since I'm packing light in terms of hardware, I decided to go shopping for a very portable - but not totally dreadful keyboard. Needless to say, I went a little more overboard than I thought I would.

I had no real intentions on getting another buckling spring keyboard following the sublime Model F Labs Classic F104, but this was just too good of deal to pass up, and I figured it'd be fun to compare the two side by side. What I have here is an actual IBM Model F 'AT'; widely considered to be the best of the original Model F designs. Does it hold up today?

Anybody who has some knowledge of vintage computer hardware is probably familiar with IBM's Model M and it's novel buckling spring switch. Despite it's ubiquity, it's not actually the only keyboard to use the switch, nor is it the first - and some may argue it certainly wasn't even the best. That distinction would go to the IBM Model F, and thanks to the efforts of a crowdfunded project; you can buy a brand-spanking-new one. Right now. But should you?

Vintage keyboards are a fun rabbit hole to dive into. They all tend to come from an era where there were no widely accepted standards like today, and many companies came out out of the woodwork seemed to have their own wildly differing ideas on how to best engineer these things. One such less known company was Datacomp, and among their sizable lineup of IBM PC peripherals, they put out this ugly monstrosity called the DFK515. Color me surprised - it's actually really, really good.

As a longtime writer, I've always appreciated the feel of a good keyboard, yet I've never actually used one that's has that kind of a reputation. I've been in squishy dome hell for damn near two decades and only fairly recently got a proper mechanical keyboard - but even that still didn't feel quite right. Ever dissatisfied, my keyboard search finally led me to this: the legendary Model M.